Cricket, fashion, egg and bacon
Published: 14 February 2013

Lords.org takes a look at the history of the famous 'Egg & Bacon' colours and how cricket affects the wider fashion world.

When designers from all across the world descend on the capital to see the latest styles for London Fashion Week, cricket, and MCC in particular, may not necessarily be on their minds.

But cricket and fashion, particularly at MCC, may go hand-in-hand.

Watch: The Colours of Marylebone Cricket Club

Cricket and Fashion

Fashion expert Katie Walker, a regular contributor to Test Match Sofa, believes that the Egg & Bacon colours are currently in fashion but mainly by coincidence.

Speaking to Lord's TV, Walker said: "If you wore Egg and Bacon, but in a t-shirt and a skirt or a pair of trousers and a shirt, you wouldn't look out of place at London Fashion Week."

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If you wore Egg and Bacon you wouldn't look out of place at London Fashion Week - Walker

This is due to a current trend known as 'colour blocking', where catwalk models sport striking bold colours. For example, wearing a bright red t-shirt with a pair of yellow trousers.

In regards, to cricketers using fashion to their advantage on the field, Shane Warne, according to Walker was an absolute master.

"When he (Warne) came onto the scen in the early nineties, the fact that he had that bleached blonde hair, wore the white make-up and looked like a surf bum meant that he stood out from the crowd," Walker added.

"Because his cricket was incredibly successful the sort of flamboyance didn't look out of place, in fact it made him look like a character from another planet and gave him a scary aura that matched his bowling."

The history of Egg and Bacon

Despite the MCC nowadays being synonymous with Egg & Bacon, these were not the club's original colours.

MCC Researcher Neil Robinson said: "The origin of MCC colours remains one of the most intriguing mysteries of the Club’s long history.

"It is known that in the early years of the Club’s existence the colours were sky blue. But by the end of the 1860s those colours had changed to red and yellow, or bacon and egg."

However, there is no definitive reason as to why the change occurred. The most likely though involves a London distillery.

Robinson continues: "The most credible one involves the Club’s gratitude to William Nicholson for the money he advanced allowing MCC to purchase the freehold of Lord’s in 1866.

"Nicholson was the owner of Nicholson’s Gin Company, whose colours were also red and yellow.

"The timing is certainly suggestive, and to this day the Nicholson family upholds the belief that the colours were adopted in gratitude to their distinguished forebear."